Pranoy Pal (PhD), along with colleague Gordon Skipage, was the joint winner of the Hort NZ Sustainable Innovation Award 2025. Pranoy is the Kiwifruit Technical Manager at Trevelyan Pack and Cool – the largest single-site kiwifruit and avocado packhouse in New Zealand. Across the regions, he provides science-based advice and support to kiwifruit growers to…
Category: Research
Soil Health for Profit
LandWISE Conference 2026 Havelock North Function Centre27 – 28 May 2026 Our “Soil Health for Profit” theme in 2026 is, in some ways, a return to the past. LandWISE arose out of work to combat soil erosion through use of minimum tillage and we’re returning to strip-till in 2026. A lot has been learned in…
Soil Health for Profit – Josh Wing
Josh Wing is a Senior Agronomist with Harvest Moon in Tasmania, bringing more than 30 years of agricultural experience to vegetable production. Raised on a mixed family farm conducting dairy, beef, potatoes and raspberry production, Josh developed a deep respect for the land and the environment from an early age. Reflecting this connection to nature,…
Winter Cover Crops
After the 2025-2026 butternut crop was harvested, the Regenerative treatment received Omya Calciprills (150 kg/ha), Sulphur (30 kg/ha), Boron (10 kg/ha), and Humates (5 kg/ha). This mix has been applied annually to stimulate soil microbes for good soil health. Thanks to Websters Hydrated Lime for supplying the micronutrients again. All three treatments were then disced…
Butternut Harvest Data
Heniz-Wattie’s was unable to process our butternut through the factory due to a lack of demand, so we had to find an alternative outlet. A local grower ended up harvesting the butternuts on the 13th of March, which was a month earlier than our target harvest date with Heniz- Wattie’s. Our butternut hand harvest of…
Cyclone Gabrielle Research Symposium
Lessons for the management of highly productive land Two years after Cyclone Gabrielle devastated the Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti regions, what have we learned about recovery? Cyclone Gabrielle struck New Zealand in February 2023, causing widespread flooding that affected Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne/Tairawhiti, and Northland. In Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti, Cyclone Gabrielle was characterised by the…
Biodiversity Strips Update
We established two new biodiversity strips on the MicroFarm in 2025, in addition to the two from 2024. One of the new strips, which is located under the irrigator wire, includes alyssum, calendula, and native ground covers. The other strip which is along a fenceline has the A Lighter Touch annual flower strip mix, which includes alyssum,…
Carbon Positive: Butternuts
The butternuts have grown rapidly since being planted on the 15th of November. All three treatments have nearly reached full canopy cover. At this stage, the main differences we’re observing are between plots within treatments, rather than clear differences between the three treatments. The Operation Advisory Group has met weekly to observe how the butternuts…
Nitrate Levels on the MicroFarm
Throughout the Carbon Positive Trial, Soil Nitrate levels down to 30cm have been monitored fortnightly. During the tomato crop (26/10/2023 – 6/3/2024), the Regenerative treatment had significantly lower nitrate levels than the Conventional and Hybrid treatments, despite all three receiving similar amounts of nitrogen. This lower nitrate level was likely due to the breakdown…
Cyclone Gabrielle Research Symposium
Lessons for the management of highly productive land In November, we co-hosted a research symposium with Vegetable Research and Innovation and the Foundation for Arable Research. The symposium brought together those who had investigated Cyclone Gabrielle’s impacts on highly productive land to present and discuss findings and observations, and draw out lessons to aid land…